U.K. Natural Gas Falls as Norwegian, Dutch Imports Rise

U.K. natural gas for same-day
delivery fell as Norwegian flows increased to a nine-month high
and imports from the Netherlands rose, leaving the delivery
network with excess fuel.

The within-day contract slid as much as 0.9 percent, broker
data compiled by Bloomberg show. Norwegian flows were at a rate
of 132 million cubic meters a day, the most since Bloomberg
started compiling the Gassco AS data in January. Dutch imports
through BBL Co.’s pipeline rose to a rate of 39 million cubic
meters a day, the most since April 14, according to National
Grid Plc (NG/) data.

Gas for today dropped 0.7 percent, or 0.5 pence, to 68.4
pence a therm at 4:04 p.m. London time. Month-ahead gas was
little changed at 69.4 pence a therm. That’s equivalent to
$11.18 per million British thermal units and compares with $3.56
per million Btu of front-month U.S. gas.

The gas-transport system will contain 350 million cubic
meters at 6 a.m. tomorrow, up from 346 million at the start of
today, grid data show.

Day-ahead gas rose 0.5 percent to 68.95 pence a therm on
predictions for freezing weather tomorrow that may boost demand
for the heating fuel.

Low temperatures in London will be minus 1 degree Celsius
(30 Fahrenheit) tomorrow and minus 3 degrees on Dec. 6, compared
with a 10-year average of 5 degrees, according to CustomWeather
Inc. data on Bloomberg. Demand in the 24 hours to 6 a.m.
tomorrow will probably be 328 million cubic meters versus a
seasonal norm of 285 million, grid data show.

Flows through the Theddlethorpe receiving terminal on the
east coast of England remained at zero since an unplanned outage
at 9 a.m. on Dec. 1, grid data show.